On Thursday, February 21, students at St. Peter’s School in Columbia, SC, will gather at St. Peter’s Cemetery as they learn about the young girls who hid there overnight during the Civil War burning of their city.
Martha Dunsky will read to 1st through 6th graders from her new children’s book Fire and Forgiveness: A Nun’s Truce with General Sherman. The thrilling story is based on first-person accounts of what happened to the young girls at the Ursuline Convent School when forced to flee through the burning city of Columbia in February, 1865, and hide overnight in the cemetery.
At the end of the reading, students will leave flowers at the grave of Mother Baptista Lynch, the convent school’s Mother Superior (and key figure in the story) who protected her students during and after the ordeal.
Dunsky’s presentation inside the school will include a discussion on how to be a peacemaker (the book’s message). Joining her will be Monica Wyrick, the book’s illustrator and art teacher at St. Peter’s School.